Tokyo Disneyland to reopen this Friday, April 15th

Tokyo Disneyland Resort has announced that one of its two themeparks will reopen for guests starting April 15th. Tokyo Disneyland, the original park will reopen this Friday. From what I’ve read, this is a welcome move by both cast members, who have been living on 60% of their salaries since the park closed, and the community, which is looking for signs of life returning to normal. Approximately 95% of the resorts visitors were from Japan, so they don’t have to depend on outside tourism to return for business to return to normal.

Not all will be normal at the parks, however. Tokyo DisneySea will remain shuttered until at least later in this month. Hotels will be slowly ramping up to full operations. The park will shut down at 6pm to assist with the energy shortage that might require rolling blackouts in the evening.

After I rode out the 1994 Northridge quake, I remember that signs of returning normalcy was a most welcome comfort. That took about a week after a 6.9 quake, the fact that it’s taken over a month at Tokyo Disney, shows how powerful the damages were. I hope everyone has as swift and as full a recovery as possible. There will always be the loss associated with the quake, but things will get better.